1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a method of and a system for providing information about a broadcast piece of information, for example a musical piece, to a person listening to a station which is broadcasting the piece of information, for example by playing the musical piece in a radio broadcast. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a method and a system which permit a person watching or hearing a broadcast transmission to obtain the identification of a piece of information included in the broadcast transmission, enabling the person to utilize the information by, for example, obtaining a compact disk, audio tape, video tape, phonograph record or other recording of the piece of information for his or her own use, incorporating the information into a summary such as a “Top 10 play list,” etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
People often hear or see a piece of information played in a radio or television broadcast, but do not hear, see, or otherwise know the name or other identifying information about the piece of information. For example, a listener may have turned on a radio broadcast after the name of a musical piece was given, or the listener may have had his or her attention diverted at the time the identification of the musical piece was given. If the listener finds the musical piece to be particularly appealing, then he or she may wish to obtain a copy of the musical piece, for example on a commercially available compact disk, audio tape recording, or phonograph record. To do so, of course, the listener must have the name of the musical piece and, most likely, also the name of the composer, the name of the orchestra or other musical group which performed the musical piece, and possibly the name of the company which put out the compact disk, tape recording or phonograph record.
The listener might obtain the name and other information about the musical piece by placing a telephone call to the radio or television station which provided the broadcast. This, however, requires obtaining the telephone number for the particular station. In addition, there may be times when the listener is not certain of the station to which his or her radio or television set is tuned. By way of example, the person may simply turn on the radio to the last station to which it was tuned and not note the station. This is an even greater problem for someone who hears a musical piece on the radio while driving in a car, since at the time the name of the musical piece was given the person's attention may have been diverted, for example by traffic conditions.
It has been suggested that each radio and television station provide a service in which a unique, easily remembered telephone code could be dialed, perhaps on a cellular phone, in order to contact a service at the radio station which would provide the identification of pieces of information played on that station. By way of example, a “star plus number” service could be provided in which a person could activate the “*” key on a telephone, along with the keys for numbers in a radio station's broadcasting frequency—e.g. “*1600” for an a.m. radio station broadcasting at 1600 kilohertz—in order to obtain identification of musical pieces played on the radio station. Such a service, however, requires calling a different telephone number for each broadcast station. While a listener may know the call letters of a radio station to which he or she is listening, the listener is less likely to know the frequency of the radio station, and so not know the proper number to call for such a service. In addition, such a service requires that the call be made while the piece of information is being played on the broadcasting station. This may be possible when the listener has a telephone readily accessible, but if a significant amount of time passes before the listener has access to a telephone, then such a service would not provide the identification of the desired piece of information.